Omar Cooper Jr.’s bumpy journey from Lawrence North to IU football star still has level left
ATLANTA — Omar Cooper Jr. and his family spent the anxious days following Indiana’s coaching change in 2023 searching for guidance.
The staff that had sold Cooper on Indiana — his in-state school — was gone. By the time Curt Cignetti’s transition concluded, nearly the entire football facility would be turned over. Donaven McCulley, Cooper’s good friend and high school teammate, entered the transfer portal.
Maybe, he and his family thought, Cooper should consider the same. Seeking advice, they reached out to the man who brought Cooper to Bloomington in the first place.
The same one Indiana had just dismissed: Tom Allen.
“He said, ‘What I would recommend is, you give until the spring,’” Omar Cooper Sr. told IndyStar, referring to Allen. “‘Wait until (Cignetti) comes in, let Omar meet him, let him see Omar.”
A former IU coach’s advice has since proved pivotal for the current one, and for a team standing one win away from playing for a national championship. Because without Omar Cooper Jr., the Hoosiers probably aren’t here right now.
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How Omar Cooper Jr. got into football, Lawrence North
From the earliest age anyone can remember, everything athletic came easily to Omar Cooper Jr.
An early childhood spent climbing onto counters and leaping off couches never bled his seemingly endless well of energy. Once, at a cousin’s house, Omar Jr. scaled the kitchen cabinets until he touched the ceiling.
“I was like, ‘Omar, get down!’” Cooper Sr. said, laughing.
Put that kid in football, friends told him. The father who excelled athletically himself already had the sport in mind.
He took Omar Jr. for tryouts at 6 years old, younger than the rest of the northwest-side league his father picked out. Coaches looked at Omar Jr.’s size and suggested he might need to wait a year.
Just give him a chance, his father said. Give him a runout, then decide what you think is best.
Omar Jr. was starting at linebacker in no time.
His father played football and basketball growing up, and ran track. Without ever quite meaning to, he instinctively guided his son to those same sports. No matter which one he played, Omar Cooper Jr. always seemed to thrive.
“To be honest, I think he realized it in little league,” Omar Cooper Sr. said. “He was so much better than almost everybody else.”
The father who at 6 foot 4, 210 pounds, pocketed football to pursue basketball encouraged his son to see his future in the former sport. Burst, acceleration, short-space quickness, plus all the instincts about space and timing and making people miss — it all came so naturally to Omar Jr.
He shined in a handful of west-side youth teams, including one in Pike Township alongside teammates who eventually signed with Big Ten, ACC and MAC schools. When it was time for Omar Jr. to start plotting his high school career, west-side programs like Ben Davis pushed him to come across town.
But the Coopers lived on the east side, and the thought of commuting that much each day just seemed like too much. They reached out to Cathedral but never heard back .
Omar’s older sister, Lamina, had played basketball for her father at Lawrence North, before signing with Purdue. And the Wildcats were growing more serious about football, under coach Pat Mallory.
The family’s only hesitation: a perception that Lawrence North — with football opening a new chapter and basketball among the most prestigious programs in the sport under hall-of-fame coach Jack Keefer — wasn’t keen on athletes playing both sports.
So, the Coopers sat with Mallory and Keefer, to gauge their actual opinion.
“With Omar, they said, ‘No, we don’t have a problem with it,’” Omar Cooper Sr. said.
That was that.
How Omar Cooper Jr. found confidence after torn ACL
At Lawrence North, Omar Cooper Jr. did what he’d done everywhere else: thrive.
Football increasingly became the priority. He spent his freshman year on the freshman team, splitting time at quarterback with a more naturally pocket-driven teammate. Then, as he rose toward varsity his sophomore year, Wildcats coaches suggested a position switch.
We have McCulley (who would wind up among the highest-ranked quarterbacks in his class) behind center, they said. Would you consider switching to receiver?
“Omar just said it real quick: ‘I’ll play receiver,’” Cooper Sr. said. “I said, ‘Are you sure?’ He said, ‘Yeah, dad, I don’t really like playing quarterback anyway.’”
The switch supercharged his career, not just at Lawrence North but as a college prospect.
In his sophomore season, Cooper posted 51 catches for 1,053 yards, and 13 touchdowns, prompting a flood of Power Five offers. He emerged as one of the best receivers in his class in the Midwest, and a top target for Allen.
By that point, Allen had Indiana humming, on the road to consecutive Florida bowl games and some memorable Big Ten wins. Allen wanted Cooper in Bloomington, and the feeling was mutual.
Then, late in the 2020 season, Cooper torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. Football went away. Indiana did not.
“Some of the bigger schools, the Alabamas, the Ohio States, they dropped off after he got hurt. We weren’t interested in them anymore, even if they came back,” Cooper Sr. said. “Those schools didn’t want him like Indiana wanted him.”
If Allen’s loyalty to Cooper endeared him to the family, his seriousness made a difference too.
Even after his son was cleared for football activity, following injury and rehabilitation, Omar Cooper Sr. still saw his namesake hesitating on the field. Sitting out drills. Blaming his absence on the advice of team trainers, when Omar Sr. knew doctors said everything was fine.
He called Allen.
“‘What do you advise to get my son more confident in himself?’” Omar Cooper Sr. asked.
Allen’s reply was simple.
“‘Tell him I need to see him out there,’” Allen told Omar Cooper Sr. “‘If he’s coming to IU, he can’t be scared.’
“It gave Omar confidence.”
Omar Cooper Jr. has strong first season for Curt Cignetti
Enough to finish his Lawrence North career with 2,856 yards and 22 touchdowns, a two-time all-state selection. As a senior, Cooper led Lawrence North to its first sectional title since 1990.
And all that eventually led him to Bloomington, where he redshirted in 2022 before appearing nine games in his second season.
Then Allen got fired, and the path that had so neatly sequenced out in front of Omar Cooper Jr. hit a detour. The family took Allen’s advice, and Omar Jr. stayed in Bloomington for the spring semester in 2024.
One of Cignetti’s first priorities after his hiring was a sitdown with every member of Allen’s staff, in part so he could pick their brains on the players he’d inherited. He asked each coach to rank their top 50 players on roster, from first on down, and he quizzed position coaches about the talent in their rooms.
Not long after, Omar Cooper Jr. got some troubling news. Word got back through Brendan Sorsby that outgoing receivers coach Anthony Tucker told Cignetti his roster only included one Big Ten-caliber receiver: McCulley, who by then had shifted positions as well.
Whatever concerns that assessment provoked the Coopers didn’t last long — Cignetti put it to rest early in his first spring practice.
“Cignetti tells me now: ‘I got the wrong information,’” Omar Sr. said. “‘When I got the chance to see him in the spring and I’m watching him, I thought, he’s pretty good.’”
Cignetti was not alone in his first impression.
“He jumped out as a guy who, there was a lot more to him than just football,” offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan, who also coaches IU’s receivers, said. “Athletically, he really jumped out to me the first time I saw him work out — his explosiveness, his speed, his ability to track the football in the air.
“I knew he was somebody who could be really special.”
Omar Cooper Jr.’s rise since has been a steady one.
He appeared in all 13 games last season, posting 28 catches for 594 yards and seven touchdowns. His 21.2 yards per catch led the Big Ten among qualified receivers.
Still, Cignetti pushed for more.
“He’s got to get rid of the inconsistency,” Cignetti said late in spring camp, in April, “set higher standards for himself, and have the discipline and commitment to achieve his goals and become what he wants to be. …
“The talent’s there. The flashes are there. Gotta see it play in, play out, game in, game out, because I’ve got very high expectations of him. Been around some really good receivers, and he can be one of those kinds of guys.”
‘I can always rely on him making a crazy catch’
Omar Cooper Jr. met that challenge this season, becoming a pivotal piece of the Hoosiers’ Big Ten championship and, now, a College Football Playoff run.
His team-high 849 yards receiving rank him eighth in the Big Ten, his 12 touchdown catches tied for second. Cooper delivered perhaps the moment of the season — at least so far — with his toe-tap touchdown catch in a dramatic last-minute win at Penn State.
He earned All-Big Ten honors for his work, and showcased appealing versatility switching to the slot, where he’s become a favorite target of Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza.
Mendoza’s estimation of what makes Cooper so valuable to a quarterback paints the picture of a player meeting Cignetti’s call for greater consistency.
“Him always being that constant Omar Cooper Jr.,” Mendoza said. “Whether it’s Penn State, or whether it’s Alabama, I can always rely on him making a crazy catch and giving his full effort.”
If America was slack-jawed at moments like Cooper’s now-legendary touchdown grab in State College, his family was not.
Is not. Maybe never will be.
“Honestly, as crazy as it may sound, my wife and I, we both have always said, we’re not surprised by anything he’s done. We’ve seen it his whole life,” Omar Cooper Sr. said. “I’m not an easy coach. I’m not easy, especially for my son, to wow, or entertain or impress. Omar’s done it many times.”
There will eventually be an NFL decision in front of Cooper, who is draft eligible after four years in college and appealing to pro scouts because of his versatility, explosiveness and downfield threat.
That, Omar Cooper Sr. said, can wait until after the season, when the family will do its due diligence on Omar Jr.’s draft stock. Right now, the focus is where the feet are.
Omar Cooper Jr. missed most of the Ohio State win because of an injury he’s since put behind him for the most part. Cooper posted three catches for 45 yards and a touchdown in the Rose Bowl.
When he committed to Indiana — like so many of his teammates — Omar Jr. imagined leading the Hoosiers to moments like this. The journey might not have been so clean and linear as he once hoped. The destination, based on a recent conversation with Omar Sr., remains the same.
“‘I just want to win a national championship,’” Omar Cooper Jr. told his father. “‘I want to do anything I can.’”
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